Railway signaling apparatus.



W. J. 000K. RAILWAY SIGNALING APPARATUS.

AIPLIOATION FILED AUGAY, 1908.

Patented Nov. 23, 1909.

4 BHEBTE-SHEET 1.

W. J. 000K. RAILWAY SIGNALING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION PILED AUG. 17, 1908.

I Patented Nov. 23, 1909.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

v w J 000K AAILWAY SIGNALING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED, AUG. 17, 1908W. J. 000K.

RAILWAY SIGNALING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 17, 1908.

940,787. I v Patented Nov. 23, 1909.

4 SHEETSSHEET 4.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE..-

WILLIAM J. COOK, OFDENVER, COLORADO.

' RAILWAY SIGNALING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 23, 1909.

Application filed August 17, 1908. Serial no. 448,930.

.figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of thisspecification.

My invention relates to improvements in railway signaling apparatus, myobject being to provide a block system whereby the signals are given bylighting lamps along the track, these lights being maintained at asuitable distance, in front and in the rear of the train whereby eitheran approaching or a following train will be notified of itsproximity toanother train.

By virtue of my improved construction, provision is made for anelectrical circuit whereby a lamp, for instance, islighted two milesahead or' the train, and left lighted until the'train has left the lampa. mile in the rear, when a magnet circuit will beautov maticallyclosed, and whereby the magnet will serveto break the light circuit andextinguish the lamp, In myimproved construction, these lighting stationsare arranged at suitable intervals, say a mile apart. 7 Every time astation is reached, two circuits are. closed, one to light alamp twostations ahead, and'theother to extinguish the light of the station inthe rear. Of course, any other desired arrangement might be made, so.far as distance is concerned. Provision is also made for indicating inthe train despatchers oliice the lighting and extinguishing of lampsalong the line so that the train despatcher will know the exactlocationof the train.

Having briefly outlined my improved co1istruction I will proceed todescribe the same in detail, reference being made 'to the accompan'yingdrawing, in which is illustrated an embodiment thereof.

In this drawmg, Figure. 1 IS a diagrammatic VIEW, llustrating thearrangement of the lighting stations alongrthe track,toe

gether with the means for-making1 and break ng the circuits. Fig. 2 is adetail .view lllustrating the means for lighting and;

extinguishing lamps in the train despatchers oflice to indicate thelocation of the train.

1+ig. 3 is a vview illustrating in detail the lighting mechanism ateachlightmg station. big. 4 is a. detail view illustrating the t meansarranged alongfa rail of the track,

whereby as the train passes, the circuit is momentarily closed. Fig. 5is a section taken on the line5 5, Fig. 4.. Fig. 6 is a view similar toFig. 3, 'but showing the lighting circuit closed, While in Fig. 3 thesame circuit is open. Fig. 7 is a detail View illustrating the mannero'fdepressing the spring contact along the track forclosing the clrcu ts.

The same reference characters indicate'the same parts in all the views.

Let the numeral 5 designate one of a series of posts arranged along thetrack at suitable intervals. These posts may be termed lightingstations. To each post is secured an arm 6 carrying an incandescent lamp7. One of the conductors 8.1eading to these lamps, is connected-with afeed wire B, while the other conductor 9 leads to al con tact 10 fast on.a rod 12 slidably mounted in a bracket 13 having upper and lower stops14. and 15. A coil spring'lti normally holds the contact 10 at itsupward limit of movement and in engagement With'the upper stop is of thebracket .13. Below this rod .is' 10- cated an electro-magnet 17'which,"when energized, actsto draw the rod 12 downwardly sutticientlyto bring the contact 10.intoengagement with thecontact18, also mountedupon the post. At the same time the contact 10 passes beneath 'aspring-actuated latch 11 which serves to lock the contact in thedepressed position or in the position whereu by the lighting circuit isclosed (see Fig; 6) The contact 18 is connected with a feed wire A by aconductor 19. One terminal of the coil of the magnet 17 is connected,with the feed wire B by a conductor 20,-while' the other terminal isconnected by aconductor 21, and a conductor 22 with -a spring. con.-tact 23, cooperating with a contact 24; acted upon by aroller 25 carriedby the. engine 26 to close the lighting circuit. These contacts 23 and24 -are located any desired distance,

in the rear of the lamp to be lighted. The bringing of the contacts23iand 241. into engagement with each other not only energizes I themagnet 17 whereby alampT 'is lighted at a suitable distance ahead of thetram, but also closes the circuit througha magnet a 27in the rear ofthe'train, which actsfupon ing, upon which four stationsare indicated, 1

v the latch 19 to move the latter to'a position these stations toreleasethe spring-actuated), light-clrcuit closing contact whereby the lamp. .7is extinguished, asuitable distance in the rear of the train. The wire21 leads to one terminal of themagnet 27. From the opposite terminal ofthisflmagnet a wire 28 leads to a magnet 29'in-the train despatchersoflice (see'big. 2), which acts upon a magnetic part 30 .to move aspring-actuated contact 31 into engagement with a contact 32 con-,nected with the feed wire B by,a conductor The contact 81 is connectedwith the feed wire A by a'conductor 34; hence,

a the contacts 31 and 32 are brought into en gagement, a lamp 35 islightedin the despatchers office. When the contact 31' is depressedtobring it into engagement wit the contact 32, it is locked in. thatposition by a spring-actuated latch 36. The cond'uctor 28 leads to oneterminal of the magnet 2 9, while a' conductor 37 leads from theopposite terminal to'one terminal of a mag-, net3'8. from whose,opposite terminal leads a conductor 39 to a feed wire 13, thus complet;ing the circuit through the magnet.38 which acts upon thespring-actuated latch 36 to re-" lease the contact 31, whereby anotherlamp 315 in the train despatchers office is eittinguished. Hence, byproperly designating .the lamps in the traindespatchers ofiice toharmonize with those along the track, the 'des patcher is kept p'ostedwith reference to the lighting and extinguishing of the signal lamps.along the track, and the location of the train. v

Wherever a side track is located, I prefer to employ' a switcharm 40connected by means of a conductor il with the Lteed-wire At Afcontact 42located adjacent to the I switch arm is connected by means of a conductor 4:3 and branch conductors-414:, with the conductor 21 leading tothe magnets 27 of a number, of stationsin the, vicinity of the switch.-From the feed wire B, conductors D lead toth'e conductor 28. Now, if itbe- T ismay be-donenby moving the switch.

' comes necessary for a-train to go upon the sidetrack, it will bedesirable to indicate a clear track by extinguishing the signal li htsboth in front and rear of the train.

arm mto engagement with the contact 42, whereby the magnets 27corresponding with the lampscontrolled by the train'upon the-= sidetrack, will all be energized'and will act upon the latch 19 to releasethe contacts 10 to break the light circuits.

As illustrated in-the drawing, feed wires A and B are connectedwith theopposite poles C and D of an electrical generatorE,

, suitably located.

, In describing the operation of my improved signaling system,reference-will be had more particularly to Fig. 1 of the draw;

being designated from left to'right as 1, 2, 3'and 4 respectively. Iwill assume that the train at station No. 2 has brought the contacts 23and 24 into engagement. In this event,'the current will pass from thefeed Wire Athrough'a conductor 46 at station Nq. 2 to the contact 2 1,and thence to the contact 23, thence through a conductor 22 to aconductor 21, leading to one terminal of the magnet 17 of station N o.4, whereby thesaid magnet is energized and acts'upon the cOntact lO ofthe said with the contact 18 of the said station, whereby the circuit isclosed through the lamp 7 of that station, the contact 10 being lockedin the circuit-closing position by the latch 19 of station No. 4.Simultaneously No. 4:, the current also passes in the rear of the train,from the contact 21, to the magnet 27 of station No.- 1, thus energizingsaid magnet which acts upon the latch 11 of that 3 station, to releasethe spring-actuated contact 10, whereby it is separated from the contact18, thus breaking the circuitof the lamp 7 at station'No. 1. It Willthus ht observed that the lamp of the 'stati on in the rear isextinguished, and the lamp at the station in advance is lighted everytime-the train reaches any station along the track. it it is desiredthat trains going in both directions shall control the signal lights,

andtheir necessary apparatus on each side of the track, .the one setbeing controlled ing apparatus'wi'll be duplicates.

assume that the contacts 2 5 and 24s are that the current, after passingthrough the magnet. 27 of station No. l, wil'l pass through aconductor28 to a magnet 29 in the train despatcl1e1"s.oflice, whereby acontact 31 of one set of instruments is brought into ongagement with acontact 32, .thus closing farthest to the left in Fig.22: At the sametime the current will pass from the magnet 29 througha conductor 37 tothe releasing x-magnet of the train despatchers oflice,

instrl ments is actuated torelease the contact 81 of a corresponding setof instruments," whereby the last named contact is allowed to separatefrom its corres onding farthest-to the left in Fig; 2.- i l By properlydesignating. the lamps which are lighted and extinguished every time atrain-reaches a station along the track, the

with the ,lighting of the lamp 7 at station there will be a distinct setof signal lights the opposite direction. These sets ot'signal station,tobring the latter into engagement Attention is called (0 the fact that ifwe brought into engagement at'station No. 2, i

the circuit through the lamp 85 next vto that 12o whereby the contact3.6 of another set of contact 32, thus extinguishing the amp 35 traindespatcher will be kept thoroughly posted as to the signals which aregiven along the track'by the various trains. In this connection it maybe stated that. the.

lamps may ,be placed upon this map or rep-' resentationmf the railwaylines at any desired number of stations, and so connected in the circuitwhich is opened and closed by. the action of the train, that the lampslocated upon the map, so to speak, at the various stations, will belighted simultaneously with the arriiyal of the train at these stations.By virtueiz of this arrangement, the exact location of all trainsanywhere within the despatchers division maybe known to him.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is: I I I 1. In railwaysignaling apparatus the combination of lighting stations arranged alongthe track, each station having a lamp, contacts located in the lampcircuit and normally separated, an electro magnet which, when energized,brings the said contacts into engagement to close the lamp circuit,means for automatically locking the said contacts in the.circuit-closing position, and an electro-magnet forreleasing the lockingmeans, circuit make-and-break devices arranged along the track and acteduponby a passing train, to momentarily place the said devices in thecircuit-closing position, and connections between the circuitmakeand-break devices and the 'electro-magnets at the lighting stations,whereby as the track make-and-break devices are closed, the

first named magnet is energized in one direction from the train and thelock releasing magnet energized in the opposite direction from thetrain, substantially as described.

2. Railway signaling apparatus, comprising lighting stations arrangedalong the track,-' each station including an electric lamp,electro-magnetic means for closing the lamp circuit, means forautomatically lock ing the lamp circuit in the closed position,electro-magnetic. means for releasing the locking mechanism, circuitmake-and-break devices arranged along the track and adapted to bemomentarily placed in the closed" position by a passing train, andcircuit con,- nections between the track inake-and-break devices and theelectro-magnetic means of the lighting stat-ions, whereby when any trackcircuit makeand-break' device is in the opposite direction fromsubstantially as described.

rection from the train, while the lock-re leasing electro-magnetic meansis energized any train,

3. Railway signaling apparatus comprising stations arranged along thetrack at suitableintervals, each station includingan electric lamp,electromagnetic means for closing the lamp circuit, means for lockingthelamp circuit in the closed position, electromagnetic means forreleasing the locking mechanism, circuit make-and break devices arrangedalong the track, each circuitmakeand-break device being connected wit-hthe electric apparatus of two stations, whereby as the track circuitmake-and-break device is closed the electromagnetic means for closingthe lamp circuit is energized atone station,

and the electromagnetic means for releasing the' locking mechanism isenergized at the other station, electric lampswlighted in the traindespatchers oflice, corresponding with f the lamps lighted andextinguished at the stations along the track, and suitable circuitconnections between the track circuit makeand-break device and theiamps'in the'despatchers oflice, whereby as the lamps are lighted orextinguished at the stations, corresponding lamps in the traindespatchers oflice are also lighted and extinguished;

4. Railway signaling apparatus, comprising signal stations arrangedalong the track, each station including an electric signal,electro-magnetic means for closing the signal circuit,'means forautomatically locking the signal circuit in the closed osition,electro-magnetic means for releaslng the locking mechanism, circuitmake-and-break de' vices arranged along the track and adapted to bemomentarily placed in the closed position by a passingtrain, and circuitconnections between the'track make-,and-break devices and theelectromagneticmeans of. the signal stations, whereby when any trackcircuit make-and-break device is closed, the

electro-magnetic means for closing the signal circuit is energized inone direction from the train, while the lock releasing electromagneticmeans is energized .in the opposite substantially as direction from anytrain, described. i

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

. WILLIAM J. COOK. Witnesses:

